Even on Australian pitches, Varun Chakravarthy has been able to conjure up his magic and outfox the hosts batters as he continues to cement his spot as India’s premier T20I spinner in the current setup.
Chakravarthy had returned with excellent figures of 2/23 in four overs in the IND vs AUS 2nd T20I on a pacer-friendly pitch at the MCG. And while Kuldeep Yadav also claimed a couple of scalps, he was smoked for 45 runs in 3.2 overs.
Kuldeep got the axe in the IND vs AUS 3rd T20I, played on Sunday in Hobart, as India brought in Washington Sundar in the XI to add batting depth, with Arshdeep Singh replacing Harshit Rana.
While Arshdeep took two wickets in his first two overs, dismissing the dangerous Travis Head and the in-form Josh Inglis, Tim David hit a flurry of boundaries to get Australia going in the second half of the powerplay and beyond.
After eight overs, Australia were 72/2, with David reaching his fifty off only 23 balls.
India needed someone to arrest the momentum Australia was gaining with David’s onslaught. And stepped up Varun Chakravarthy, who is the No. 1 ICC T20I bowler.
While David remained at the non-striker’s end, Chakravarthy got rid of Australian skipper Mitchell Marsh and Mitchell Owen in consecutive deliveries to dent the hosts.
Marsh miscued his slog down the ground and was caught at long-off. The dismissal of Owen on the next delivery came through a terrific googly from Chakravarthy that left the batsman clueless.
The ball pitched outside the line of the off-stump on a good length, to which Owen went for a cut with little feet movement. Upon pitching, the ball turned in sharply, going through the massive gap between Owen’s bat and body, and crashed into the top of the off-stump. Owen was left dumbfounded by this stunning delivery from India’s mystery spinner.
IND vs AUS: Varun Chakravarthy Cleans Up Mitchell Owen With A Googly, VIDEO
Despite Chakravarthy’s double strike, David has continued with his gung-ho approach, targeting and reaching the boundaries regularly. David’s innings eventually ended on 74 (38).
At the time of writing, Australia are 118/5 in 13 overs.
IND vs AUS 3rd T20I Playing XIs:
Australia: Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (c), Josh Inglis (wk), Xavier Bartlett, Mitchell Owen, Tim David, Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott, Matthew Short, Nathan Ellis, Matthew Kuhnemann
India: Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Varun Chakaravarthy, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah
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